What Lies Above
by ObsessiveFanFictioner15
Summary: Danny had never understood his parents obsession with the surface world and the land dwellers, but when a spell goes horribly wrong and he becomes half human, Danny must quickly learn how to balance his new life, new friends, and new enemies all while keeping his half-breed status a secret from everyone he loves. Shitty summary. MerDanny AU fic. Credit to otakubabes for plot
1. Chapter 1

**Yay, another story! Credit for plot line goes to otakubabes, as do much of the first chapter ideas.**

**I don't own Danny Phantom (go figure) or the initial plot line.**

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_Backfire_

Danny swam around in circles, trying to get a better view of the 'sun' as the land-dwellers called the large glowing sky ball. The way it filtered through the water was rather pretty in his opinion and he wanted to get a better look at it, even if every time he tried to look right at it he got blinded the intensity of the light. Of course he wasn't going to go to the surface; that would be crazy! His parents had told him many stories about the land-dwellers and if we honest with himself, he was terrified of them; he certainly wasn't going to get anywhere near their territory, even if they couldn't follow him in the water. Finally he turned and swam home. His parents had been working on a new spell and he was eager to see it, despite the fact that it probably wouldn't work.

Danny's parents were mages, and would have been highly respected if not for their…hobby. Jack and Maddie were completely obsessed with land-dwellers, so much so that they wanted to capture one and –if Danny understood correctly- possibly dissect one, mostly just to see how they breathed. All that seemed rather beastly to Danny, who was glad that his parents have never seen a land-dweller, let alone capture one. Even if they did, how would they keep it alive anyway? His parents were smart, but they didn't know _that_ much. But the spell they had created, if it succeeded, would allow them to survive on land because they would be able to breathe…whatever it was that land-dwellers breathed. Danny wondered how they would move around, which led to the amusing image of his parents dragging themselves across the sand. This led to the question of just how land-dwellers moved around. He shook his head to clear his thoughts when he saw the ship his small clan of merfolk lived.

"Danny!" he heard a female voice call. Looking up, he saw his older sister swimming toward him. She had long red hair, a bright blue and black tail with matching fins, and light teal eyes.

"Hi Jazz. Where are you going?" Danny eyed the sachel slung around Jazz's shoulder.

"Anywhere but here right now," Jazz said distastefully, looking over at nearby cave.

"You sure you don't want to see if it works?"

"Do you think it will?"

Danny shook his head. "No, but imagine how thrilled our parents will be if it does." Jazz simply nodded and swam off.

Danny scowled at her back then turned and swam to the cave. The other merfolk wouldn't let his parents do their research (aka spell creation) in the ship because they had a tendency to be rather destructive when the spells failed, which was often. They had found the cave soon after the restriction was put in place, and it was soon covered in burn marks.

"Mom, Dad, you guys in here?" he called as he swam into the cave. His response was in the form of being crushed half to death by a back-breaking hug from an amazingly large merman.

"Danny-boy, you're just in time to witness our greatest breakthrough!" the merman, Jack, crowed.

"Dad…" Danny managed. The intensity of the hug was slowly cutting off his gill's access to water.

Maddie seemed to notice and came to Danny's rescue. "Jack honey, I know you're exited, but that's no reason to suffocate our son." She swam up to the two males and got Jack to release his considerably smaller son

"Thanks," Danny sighed, lightly rubbing his gills as they began working overtime to make up for the near-suffocation.

"We're finally going to go on the land and see the land-dwellers!" Jack would have been jumping with excitement if he had been able to. As it was, he was just swimming in small circles, which actually looked amusing to see one of his girth doing.

Danny grinned weakly. "Yeah, but…it's been so long since we've heard about them. How do we know they haven't made themselves go extinct?"

Maddie sighed. "That's what Jazz asked us. From what we know, land-dwellers are tough. I don't even know how to kill them, or if we can at all. That's why this spell is important, it-" She was interrupted by her husband grabbing her hand, and shouting, "Bonzai!"

Both parents began to focus and then glow green. At first it seemed like the spell was working, but when their faces contorted in pain, Danny knew something was wrong. Ignoring what his parents had taught him about the dangers of interfering with a spell before it's complete, he swam up and forced the two apart. The spell sort of imploded, collapsing in on itself with Danny at the center.

A fierce, burning pain flashed through his veins and he briefly thought that he was being burned from the inside-out. It was gone before he could scream and he was left dazedly floating in the water. He managed to rouse himself when he heard his mother speaking.

"Danny? Danny! Are you okay?" You know better than to interrupt a spell!"

Danny nodded weakly. It felt as if the water was slowly crushing him and he couldn't seem to breathe as well as he could a moment earlier. "Sorry," he managed. "You guys looked like you were in pain. Besides, I'm fine." It was a lie, but his parents already looked upset enough without their concern for him making it worse. His mother seemed to believe him though and he watched as she led his father out, whispering words of comfort to the now severely depressed man.

As soon as they were gone Danny darted out of the cave. A peculiar pressure had begun building in his chest and there was something in his mind telling him to _open his mouth and breathe_, which he found odd as he _was_ breathing and he certainly didn't need to open his mouth to do it. Finally though, the urge became too strong and he complied, immediately regretting the decision. Water rushed into his mouth and down his throat and he began coughing, trying to get the water out. He felt his mind beginning to spiral away and he stilled, a few lost bubbles escaping to the ocean's surface.


	2. Chapter 2

**My foot is ****_sooo _****bouncy! I have no idea why but it ****_won't stop!_**** Stop foot, stop! Why do I sound hyper right now, even though I didn't have lunch today? Oh yeah, because I'm finally updating! Wee, updates are fun!**

***clears throat* Anyway, I can't remember if this was published before or after my name change, so I'll put it in anyways. I was having a bit of an identity crisis because my penname was the same as my main OC. People kept calling me 'Mistheart' even though we are totally separate beings...despite that fact that she exists only because I do. It's not that I blame anyone, they didn't know that until I told them. But yeah, between that and the actual Mistheart having a cow for using her name as a penname (I've yet to change my DeviantArt name) I changed it. And so the very accurate penname of 'ObsessiveFanFictioner15' was born. I find it describes me very well.**

**And without further ado, let's- Huh? Do we need that again? Fine, if the real Mistheart will do the honors.**

**Mistheart: Fine you lazy human. *ahem* This girl does not own Danny Phantom no matter how many times he appears in her dreams. She also does not own...the Esperanto language?**

**OFF15: Yep. And that was ****_one time!_**** And I don't even know why he was there, he didn't do anything :P**

**Mistheart: You had a dream with him twice actually. Remember when you and him kept switching places and you couldn't figure out if you were talking about Maddie or your own mom?**

**OFF15: Just-just start the chapter**

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_An Embarrassing (for Sam at least) and Rather Confusing __Find_

"Sam, why're we here again?" Tucker Foley ran to catch up with his best friend Sam Manson, who was examining the beach, looking for...Tucker wasn't sure what.

"It's the one time of day that no one is out here," was the only explanation received. It was sunset in early March, _of course _there wasn't anyone out. Plus it looked as if the clouds could break anytime, so that was as a good deterrent as the nippy air.

"But I just got the new version of Doomed!" Tucker whined.

"Suck it up Techno-Geek. A little walk never did you any harm," Sam growled. She leaned down and picked up a shell, examining it in the fading light.

'So that's what she's looking for', Tucker thought. He looked around Sam and squinted. "Hey Sam, what's that?" he asked, pointing to an odd shape further on down the beach. Sam looked up and noticed what he was referring to. She got to her feet and the two of them approached the...thing. When the got close enough to tell what it was, they stopped, which was accompanied by a strange squeak from Sam and the hasty covering of female eyes.

"Why is there an, um..." Sam didn't finish her sentence and turned to Tucker (her eyes still covered of course).

"I...don't know. I didn't put him there."

"Is he alive?"

"Again, I don't know. Should we see?"

Sam snorted. "By 'we' I think you mean 'you'. I am not handling a naked dead body, especially that of a boy."

"What if he's alive?" Tucker wondered.

"Then find some clothes for him! You always keep extra in your backpack right? Though I could never understand why," Sam muttered to herself.

"Fine, fine, I'm going." Tucker trudged over to where the boy lay. He placed two fingers on the neck and felt for a pulse. There was one. And from what Tucker could tell, the boy was breathing too. Remembering what Sam had told him, he quickly dug the extra clothes out of his backpack. They were a bit too small for him, which was why he had labeled them 'emergency only' in his mind, but they looked like they would fit the boy just fine. As awkward as he felt dressing someone his age, Tucker dressed the kid quickly, accidentally rousing him in the process.

The boy's eyes flew open. When he saw Tucker and Sam, he rolled over so he was on his stomach and tried to back away from them. This would have been more effective if he had made use of his legs instead of just pushing himself backward. When he realized that he was going nowhere fast, he collapsed back down onto the sand and gazed fearfully up at the duo.

"Hey we're not going to hurt you," Sam said softly as she drew closer to the two boys. Tucker blinked at her tone while the mystery boy relaxed slightly. She caught Tucker's look. "What?" she asked defensively. "Talking soft and friendly-like has a calming effect on scared animals. It stands to reason that it works on humans as well." Tucker just blinked again. "Whatever," she growled and turned back to the other boy. "Can you stand?" she asked him. He simply cocked his head and stared at her.

Tucker sighed and held out his hand. The boy tentatively took it and then looked back at Sam. She found his staring mildly unnerving, his vivid ice blue eyes seeming to pierce through her. She watched as Tucker took the boy's other hand and pulled him to his feet. As soon as he was there however, he began to waver, so she rushed up to help him. Unfortunately, he fell backwards...right onto Sam. She let out a breathless gasp as the air was forced out of her.

The boy looked over his shoulder at Sam with an apologetic look in his eyes. He rolled to the side and propped himself upon his elbows, examining Sam some more. She frowned. "Will you quit with the staring at me?" she asked irritably.

The boy swallowed and blurted, "Vi estas bela." As soon as he said that, he blushed and looked away.

Sam raised an eyebrow and shrugged, getting back to her feet. Motioning to Tucker for help, she put one of his arms around his neck, Tucker copying the action on the other side. Slowly they maneuvered him to his feet again, not daring to let him go after what had just happened. "Let's get him to my place. We'll have to sneak him past my parents, but that shouldn't be too hard."

"Sounds good. Your house is closer," Tucker agreed. He then turned to the boy. "My name's Tucker, what's your's?"

The boy blinked and said, "Mi vere ne komprenas lando-logxanto parolas."

Tucker started, then quickly replied, "Mia nomo estas Tucker. Kio estas via nomo?"

Sam stared. "You can understand him?"

Tucker nodded. "A bit. Esperanto is a old language, it's pretty much died out. Now it's mostly used to give nerds a secret language. I've never heard of someone speaking it as a first language though." He turned back to the boy.

"Mia nomo estas Danny. Kiu estas la knabino?" the boy, Danny, wondered, once again staring at Sam.

"Sam," Tucker said simply. Danny was walking on his own now, though slowly, and the two were flanking him just in case he fell again.

Sam glanced at Danny for seemingly the millionth time before she saw them. They were faint, slightly darker than his skin; thin dual scars on the side of his neck, looking for all the world like someone had cut it open. "Tucker, look at his neck and tell me what you see."

Tucker looked and gasped softly. "What are those?"

"Scars obviously, though how they got there is beyond me. Danny," Sam said hesitantly, slightly pleased when he turned in response. She touched his neck where the scars were and he copied her. He gasped and seemed to panic slightly, but then he calmed down again when he solved whatever dilemma he had with the scars.

They continued in silence until they were at Sam's street. Suddenly there was a crash of thunder and it started raining, steadily growing harder. Danny had panicked at the noise and was now dancing around as if trying to avoid the rain, making strange noises as he did so. Sam grabbed his hand and tried to get him to run, but she had forgotten that he could barely walk, much less run. He stiffened slightly and yelped, slapping a hand to his back. She blinked in surprise, but didn't comment.

Tucker was already on Sam's porch, safe from rain. They finally all dashed inside, Danny and Sams' hair dripping water. None of them stopped until they reached Sam's room and she had closed the door.

Sam heard Danny panting and turned to find him doubled over, fighting to breathe. She frowned when she saw something stretching the back of his shirt. Curious, she reached a hand out to feel, but was halted by him grabbing her wrist. She opened her mouth to comment, but choked on the words when she saw his hand. It seemed normal enough, except for the black webbing between the fingers.

Danny looked at her, trying to figure out why she had made a strange choking noise. When he caught sight of his hand, he paled, glancing between Sam and the offending appendage.

Sam tugged her wrist from his grasp and gave him the universal 'You'd better explain this or you're in _huge _trouble' expression.

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**We've all gotten that kind of expression before haven't we? Yes, no?**

**Mistheart: Yes we have, now shut up**

**OFF15: Oh get back into my brain and stay there**

**Mistheart: I will as soon as you do your homework on a constant basis**

**OFF15: -_- Just be quiet**


End file.
